The Del Boys are in trouble as Grant and Tarrant face execution as a mission goes badly wrong…

Yes, you did read that right – Del Grant, as played by Tom Chadbon, is back on board the Liberator, following the events of the award-winning The Armageddon Storm, adding a little side loop in Series C that we didn’t get to see on screen, but which provides some interesting opportunities for the production team. Although, given the pre-credits sequence of this story, Mr Grant may not be around for long!

Cavan Scott and Mark Wright’s script is narrated by Steven Pacey’s Tarrant, and the actor’s long experience of audiobook reading comes in handy here, as he provides voices for a number of other characters along the way – including a dealer who brings back memories of The Phantom Menace! It’s a typically torturous and twisted tale, which plays off the differences between not just Tarrant and Grant, but also Tarrant and Avon, and additionally makes a virtue out of Josette Simon’s absence as Dayna.

The way this story is told means that it’s impossible for someone to do the audio equivalent of a “24 hours earlier” caption which is what you’d normally get on screen after the credits roll, to show that the first scenes on Liberator precede the rather shocking pre-credits by some distance (although that becomes obvious quickly). Indeed the whole episode plays with the audiobook structure more than usual (in fact, rather like The Armageddon Storm did), with some sequences played out simply as dialogue and action without narration – notably a montage sequence featuring Tarrant wherein narration would be superfluous.

Verdict: A neatly told tale which sows some seeds for future problems. 8/10